This invention relates to the field of communication systems and to the field of computer systems and more particularly to a computer implemented interactive promotional system which utilizes a communications system for tracking and awarding promotional incentives.
A number of organizations such as credit card firms, automobile manufacturers, rental car companies, department stores, long distance telephone organizations, financial institutions and others have offered a number of different programs for promoting purchases of goods or services. These have included discount offers for certain catalog items, based on volume of activity in an account. Other promotional schemes have involved discounts on goods or services offered by others. For example, discount coupons have been offered for airline tickets based on a minimum level of investment at a bank or savings and loan. Similarly, holders of bank cards have been offered deeply discounted or free air travel based on a certain level of activity using a general purpose charge card or have been credited with frequent flyer miles based on activity in a charge card account.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,025,372, issued on Jun. 18, 1991 to Burton et al. discusses the problems associated with administering promotional or incentive marketing programs that utilize an award of merchandise. In one form of promotion, the incentive company has its own warehouse facilities to store the merchandise. There are a number of disadvantages of this approach. The incentive company has to prepare catalogs, stock and distribute them. An inventory of merchandise ties up the incentive company""s money. If the incentive company underestimates or overestimates the demand for a particular item of merchandise, either excessive delay will create customer dissatisfaction or the incentive company must suffer the loss associated with merchandise which does not move. The approach proposed by Burton et al. to overcoming these problems is to implement an incentive award program using computer systems and to issue, instead of merchandise, credit instruments which enable the participant in the program to select a reward of their own choosing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,297,026, issued Mar. 22, 1994 to Frank Kaufman discloses a computerized system which links a high rate of return on invested funds to levels of performance in the activity which the incentive awards program is designed to motivate.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,483,444, issued on Jan. 9, 1996 to Hindsman et al., discloses a computerized system for providing incentives for travel agents and awards cumulative credits to travel agents based on bookings of travel related reservations.
In addition to the problems noted above, merchants who sponsor an incentive awards program would like to be freed of the administration of the redemption or fulfillment processes. Some incentive award programs are subject to a type of fraud in which persons obtain coupons without being bonafide purchasers of the goods or services which are being motivated by the incentive awards program. Those coupons, if redeemed by parties who would otherwise not be entitled to do so frustrate the underlying motivation of running an incentive awards program.
Most of the incentive award programs do not permit a sponsor or an administrator of such a program to gather information about the customers. Further, it is difficult to provide instant gratification to a participant through an instant award. In addition, most incentive award programs do not adapt to the level of experience of the user, thus creating a monotonous presentation for the customer.
The invention discloses methods, apparatus, systems and computer program products for overcoming the problems of the prior art, addressed above.
In its most general form, the invention is directed to an interactive platform with which participants in an incentive awards program interact over a network. The network can be any type of network, such as a local area network, a wide area network, a public communications network, such as the Internet, an internal company network such as an Intranet, a CATV network, or a telephone network. In general, the interactive platform is arranged to interact with program participants to manage and administration the awards program in a way which overcomes many of the problems of the prior art.
In one implementation, a peel open certificate is provided for inclusion in packaging of items to be sold or for inclusion as part of a display or for dispensing at check-out by merchants dealing in the goods or services to be promoted by the incentive award program. The inside of the certificate contains a telephone number (preferably a toll free telephone number), instructions for using the certificate and a certificate number which is unique to each certificate. The instructions direct a participant in the program to dial the toll free telephone number where the user is prompted to enter the ten digit telephone number under which the user desires to register the certificates. A computer interfaces with a voice response unit to handle the incoming calls automatically. An entry is created in a database for each user and the database entry is utilized to track the awards for that particular user.
A particularly convenient type of award is an award of free long distance telephone time. When a user achieves sufficient award points, he is awarded, for example, fifteen minutes of telephone time. To use that time, the user calls the same telephone number dialed to register the certificate and receives an indication of his award balance and may redeem portions of awarded telephone time by specifying a destination number to which user desires to be connected. The computer causes a connection to be established to the destination number specified by the participant. The participant and the destination number are then connected until the conversation is completed or until the awarded time expires. Conveniently, a warning may be given before the allotted award time expires so the conversation may be terminated gracefully.
The ordering of interactions between a participant and a system changes from call to call under control of a call flow table. Thus, different messages can be played and different sequences of interaction with the participant can be undertaken.
The invention relates to computer apparatus for carrying out a promotional awards program, including a processor, a memory medium accessible by the processor, and a database stored on the memory medium, the database including information about participants in the program and information about how calls from a participant will be handled based on information about the participants. A number of processes run on the processor. The processes include, one to request the name and address of a participant, one to provide awards to a participant, one to redeem awards earned by a participant; one to poll participants for gathering information and one to provide messages to a participant. The processor is configured to provide participants with awards in quantities and value which are under the control of a sponsor of the promotional program. Awards can be delivered electronically, such as awards in the form of long distance telephone service and the electronic transfer of cash or credits.
The invention also relates to a system for carrying out a promotional awards program, which includes a network, a processor having a memory medium and a database stored on the memory medium, connected to the network, the database including information about participants in the program and information about how calls from a participant will be handled based on information about the participants, and network devices, connected to the network, for communications with the processor.
The invention also relates to a method of awarding promotional incentives to a participant by receiving a communication from the participant, retrieving information about the participant from a database based on information contained in the communication, and controlling interaction with the participant based on information about the participant retrieved from the database.
The invention is directed to a method of awarding promotional incentives to a purchaser in which a call is received from a purchaser, a certificate number is entered by the purchaser, and the award credits for the purchaser are incremented, based on the certificate number. One of the incentives is long distance telephone time which can be redeemed by calling the same number which the purchaser uses to enter a certificate number and requesting connection to a long distance number. A promotional incentive can also be a credit in cash or cash equivalent or merchandise.
In one implementation, the calling number from which the purchaser makes a call is identified automatically and used to access the purchaser""s address in a database. The purchaser""s address is confirmed by generating a vocal representation of at least a first few characters of the address and generating a question to the purchaser on whether the address is correct. In another implementation, the purchases is asked to speak the address to which the merchandise is to be sent and a response from the purchaser is stored.
A certificate is used as part of some promotional incentive programs. The certificate is a two piece certificate which opens to reveal a certificate number inside. A telephone number to call is also included inside. Selected callers are awarded instant winner award credits when they call.
The invention is also directed to a method of changing interaction with a caller who calls a telephone number as part of a promotional awards program, by storing an indication of the number of times a caller has called, and selecting interactions based on the number using a call flow table.
The invention is also directed to a method of awarding a prize to a participant as part of a promotional awards program by storing an indication of a quantity of time to which a participant is entitled to have access to long distance telephone service, and providing access to the participant to a telephone line having long distance access for a period of time-not to exceed the quantity of time.
The invention is also directed to a method of awarding promotional incentives to a purchaser by issuing certificates to participants upon purchase of goods or services to be promoted, each certificate having a unique identification, receiving a call from a purchaser including the unique identification, and incrementing award credits for a participant, based on the unique identification.
The invention is also directed to apparatus for awarding promotional incentives to a purchaser including a CPU having digital storage, a voice response unit, connected to the CPU and connected to a communications medium, and one or more databases, stored in the storage, containing participant information and information about certificates provided as part of the incentives.
The invention is also directed to a system for awarding promotional incentives to a purchaser including a telephone system, a voice response unit, connected to the telephone system, and a computer system connected to the voice response unit for identifying a purchaser and for awarding promotional incentives based on the number of a certificate in the possession of the purchaser.
The invention also relates to a computer program product including a memory medium, and a computer program stored on the memory medium, the computer program containing instructions for receiving a communication from the participant, retrieving information about the participant from a database based on information contained in the communication, and controlling interaction with the participant based on information about the participant retrieved from the database.
The invention also relates to a method of awarding promotional incentives to a user, by loading an interactive program, and while the user is running the interactive program, connecting to an interactive platform for providing at least one promotional incentive to the user. The interactive program can be a game stored on a CD-ROM.
The invention is also directed to computer program products for carrying out the techniques of the invention.
Still other objects and advantages of the present invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, wherein only the preferred embodiment of the invention is shown and described, simply by way of illustration of the best mode contemplated of carrying out the invention. As will be realized, the invention is capable of other and different embodiments, and its several details are capable of modifications in various obvious respects, all without departing from the invention. Accordingly, the drawing and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature, and not as restrictive.